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Monday, November 22, 2010

Netflix Streaming Only

New York Times: Netflix Introduces Streaming-Only Pricing: unlimited streaming on-demand video through the Internet without having to rent any DVDs ...... will cost $7.99, and give customers access to unlimited movies and TV shows in Netflix’s library. ..... Earlier in the year Netflix signed a $1 billion deal with Paramount Pictures, Lions Gate and MGM to add their content to its services. .... beyond physical DVDs and onto dozens of new platforms and services.... the streaming version of the platform available on an abundance of devices, including mobile phones, video game systems, laptop computers, third-party set-top boxes and a number of other Internet-capable gadgets.

This was a long time coming. Who needs a DVD? Before long DVD players will be banned.

What is sweet in this arrangement is the big movie houses are in for the ride. After a movie has been out for a month, two months, put it up on Netflix. We live in the era of good enough. The big screen is swell.Image via Wikipedia
Surround sound is swell. But the laptop screen is good enough.

A few people watch a lot of movies. But most people don't watch all that many. And a ton of people just like the idea of having that option to watch whenever, wherever.

Before long Netflix is going to have a competitor. And might as well.

It is amazing how fast Blockbuster was Gone With The Wind. That was disruption.

Blockbuster could not have reinvented itself. Why?

"People don't change their ideas. They die with them."
- Max Planck, father of Quantum Mechanics Image via Wikipedia
What Steve Jobs did to music, Netflix is doing to movies. People don't want to steal, they just want it digital and cheaper. If you will not give them digital, they w-i-l-l steal. Go figure.

The natural next step is movies supported by ads. YouTube should crack that pot. It could. It could, it would, it should.